Battle of Pelusium
| Battle of Pelusium (525 BC) | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Belligerents | |||||||||
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Twenty-sixth dynasty of Egypt Carian mercenaries Ionian mercenaries |
Achaemenid Empire Arabian allies Defected Greek mercenaries | ||||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
| Psametik III | Cambyses II | ||||||||
| Strength | |||||||||
| Unknown, but much fewer | Unknown, but much more | ||||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
| 50,000 (Ctesias) | 7,000 (Ctesias) | ||||||||
The Battle of Pelusium, was the first great showdown between the Achaemenid Empire, and Egypt. This was a decisive battle which transferred the throne of the Pharaohs to Cambyses II of Persia, king of the Persians. It was fought near Pelusium in 525 BC. Then following the battle there was a siege at Memphis.
Background
In Egypt pharaoh Amasis II died after a long and prosperous reign and was succeeded by his son Psamtik III who ruled no more than six months. The young and inexperienced pharaoh probably did all he could to defend his country from invasion, but this was to prove futile. Cambyses decided to undertake the conquest of Egypt, the only remaining independent state in that part of the world. Cambyses had prepared for the march through the desert by an alliance with Arabian chieftains, who brought a large supply of water to the stations.
The motives
Psametik had hoped that Egypt would be able to withstand the threatened Persian attack by an alliance with the Greeks, but this hope failed, as the Cypriot towns and the tyrant Polycrates of Samos, who possessed a large fleet, now preferred to join the Persians, and The commander of the Greek troops, Phanes of Halicarnassus, went over to them. Polycrates sent 40 triremes to the Persians, and expected the politically dangerous crew to be executed by Cambyses. But half way through the trip they realized what was happening and turned the ships around.
The battle
When the military conflict happened at Pelusium. The engagement between the two armies was thus not so much a battle as a carnage. Egypt at the hands of a young prince, not withstanding his inexperience, was no match for the Persians. No doubt some of the mercenaries made a stout resistance, but they were vastly outnumbered, and were not much better troops than their adversaries. The Egyptians must have suffered devastating losses. This may happened when the Egyptians were unwilling to strike the Persians during the battle, when the Persians were carrying shields with the image of Bastet on it. According to Ctesias, fifty thousand of them fell, whereas the entire loss on the Persian side was only seven thousand. After this short struggle, the troops of Psamatik fled, and in a little time the retreat became a complete rout. The remaining troops attempted to hide in Pelusiums fortress, but as they were about to, Cambyses in no mood for a siege, released a wave of cats at the Egyptians. The cat to the Egyptians had a sacred symbol of protection, and seeing the protective god Bastet, allowing a multitude of cats on the offense, must have demoralized the Egyptians. After seeing this as a bad sign, they were discouraged from hiding in fortress, and continued there rout. The fugitives did not stop till they reached Memphis, where they shut themselves up within the walls.
Aftermath
Being defeated at the battle of Pelusium, after he was betrayed by one of his allies, Phanes of Halicarnas, Egyptian pharaoh Psametik III fled to Memphis. As Cambyses advanced at once to Memphis, it is said that for every two hundred Mytileneean killed during the siege of Memphis, ten Egyptians died, which makes the number of two thousand Egyptians that may have been executed after the siege, because two hundred Carians were killed. Pelusium probably surrendered itself immediately after the battle. The pharaoh was captured after the fall of Memphis and later executed after attempting a revolt against the conquerors.
Herodotus on the battle
The fields around were strewn with the bones of the combatants when Herodotus visited, who noted that the skulls of the Egyptians were distinguishable from those of the Persians by their superior hardness, a fact confirmed he said by the mummies, and which he ascribed to the Egyptians' shaving their heads from infancy, and to the Persians covering them up with folds of cloth or linen. Herodotus tels us that, according to legend, Cambyses captured Pelusium by using a clever strategy. The Egyptians regarded certain animals, especially cats, as being sacred, and would not injure them on any account. Cambyses had his men carry the `sacred' animals in front of them to the attack. The Egyptians did not dare to shoot their arrows for fear of wounding the animals, and so Pelusium was stormed successfully. After the taking of the city Cambyses seized the opportunity to show his contempt of the Egyptians. He himself carried a cage of cats in front of him upon his horse, and hurled them with insulting taunts and laughter, in to the faces of his foes.